Which Lectionary?

It came home to me again this morning just how much time had passed since I had spent time with the FIUV Position Papers : too long! I find a balance in this effort which encourages, never falling short of provoking an honest examination of the status quo.

I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend: Positio N. 15 THE LECTIONARY OF THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM. It gives me occasion, among other things, to make a plug again for the wisdom of what Benedict XVI has hallowed, recommending the growing together of the two forms of the Roman Rite, as "mutual enrichment". The position paper, especially in the Appendices A & B, casts a clear light on a few of our lost treasures in need of recovery for the sake of our own enrichment. Particularly sobering for "new" Lectionary enthusiasts should be the non taxative list of Scripture passages from the 1962 Missal, no longer heard in church even in the course of three years.

Furthermore, encouraged as I am by how Pope Benedict XVI was able to wrest exegesis from the sterility of the recent past and gift us with a lectio worthy of the great Fathers and Doctors of the Church, I wish to second a very important point made obliquely in Paper N. 15, concerning pitfalls of the Lectionary prescribed for the Ordinary Form. In speaking about the Lectionary which forms an integral part of the 1962 Missal, the author comments:

"4. The Lectionary’s development is such that, while the Sunday Gospels and Epistles each form a discernible series, the two series are independent of each other. We are not presented with connections between readings dependent on the exegetical preferences of scholars of any particular age, but rather a more fundamental working-out of the mysteries of salvation."

The point is well taken and reflects back on the merit of upholding a millennial tradition of the essential canon which has and should nourish our liturgical tradition. This thought brings me back to Appendix B and an interview with Vatican Radio by Jeffrey Tucker, which spoke convincingly of the benefits for our liturgy of the recovery of our patrimony of Gregorian Chant now under way, which has gone leagues to helping with the implementation of what has either been ignored or has remained vestigial in many if not most parishes from 1970 up until the present day (viz. antiphons, et. al.).

The issue of the Lectionary also "bleeds over" inexorably into the question of calendar reform and the rollback of the Sanctoral cycle generally, but most specifically in favor of the new ferial Lectionary in its two year cycle of first readings. 

"8. The ancient ferial Lectionary did not displace the readings for feast days, and given the fullness of the Sanctoral cycle in Rome, and the developing popularity of Votive Masses, it seems likely that the editors of Roman Missals from the 13th century onwards thought it was unnecessary: there is clearly little point in a cycle of readings which is rarely used. The Lenten ferial cycle could only avoid being swamped by feasts and votive Masses by giving it a greater liturgical priority. A relative paucity of feast days is appropriate to the Lenten season, as is the distinctive character of the ferial Mass formularies, which also include ancient, complex, and profoundly beautiful chants."

I wish the paper hadn't used the word "swamped" to describe the ascendancy of the Sanctoral cycle. You might say that the author lends credence thereby to the thesis which establishes "defense lines" or "levies" to hold back the Sanctoral "tide" for the sake of daily mass goers now deprived of the richness of Matins from once upon a time. I can remember in seminary being taught  to privilege the ferial cycle in Ordinary Time over choices from the various appendices of the Lectionary for optional memorials of Saints. I find intriguing the fact that with the most recent edition of the Lectionary for the U.S. appropriate choices have been made for every saint. A priest friend of mine in this regard has "gone Sanctoral" if you will. Maybe a restoration of an enriched Matins would indeed be a better route to go and more in tune with an ancient spiritual tendency for the proper nourishment of Christ's Bride?

No doubt some will advise me as a mere dilettante to stand clear of realms where "black belt liturgists" have reason to fear. Naive as I am, I cannot help but share the enthusiasm of those which see the reform of the reformed liturgy already in course. In this holiday time of warm weather in the northern hemisphere many a small child is getting his first dunk in a lake or a pool secure in Daddy's firm grasp. He will soon be in the swim of things and through "mutual enrichment" and exposure to treasures many thought lost, we may sooner than later find ourselves awash in the richness of our great tradition.

You are my inheritance, O Lord!

Looking to the readings for the 13th Sunday tomorrow, I was very much struck by the familiar verse of the Responsorial Psalm: "You are my inheritance, O Lord".

Having been "on the road" and incomunicado for nearly two weeks, the latest scandals from Rome, involving priests and former priests, money and sodomy, hit me with full force. Such is not and cannot be the way of the prophet or the priest; we belong to Christ; our hearts are to be set on Him alone. Where are all these "double lives" coming from?

Fortunately, neither was I born with the proverbial silver spoon in my mouth nor do rich benefactors seem to find me irresistible. By the grace of God, I have been spared much, as I don't have the material means to be tempted to amass more either legally or illegally and gambling has never been an attraction. Nonetheless, who among us is spared from setting our sights on something or someone short of the Lord Himself as our portion and cup, our prize? A pittance could very well be a miser's downfall and another man's hell. 

Yes, we, especially secular priests, must strengthen our resolve. Those in authority must be more vigilant in guarding access to the sheepfold, barring the way to the ignoble hireling and the thief; yes, the temple must be cleansed. But we priests must also be more honest in examining our consciences and rooting out all forms of self-indulgence; we must seek the desert experience and dependence upon Him alone. St. Jean Marie Vianney remains our benchmark.

If I might risk offending in expressing myself thus, and lay people must help rather than hinder their priests on the path to holiness. Parishioners must become more solicitous in praying, in storming heaven asking God to make their priest holy, worrying less about whether Father gets out for a good dinner from time to time.

"You are my inheritance, O Lord". Let me never forget and let my people sustain me on the path that leads to His Kingdom!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

A Personal Relationship With Christ?

A video from my home diocese of Sioux Falls (here) drew me to Sherry Weddell's book on promoting discipleship in the Catholic Church and also gave me the American expression which would not come to me in my previous post where I resorted to the German expression "Volkskirche". The equivalent as Sherry points out is "cultural Catholicism" and she opposes it to what she terms "intentional Catholicism", which ought better to guarantee a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ:

"If this trend does not change, in ten years it will cease to matter that we have a priest shortage. The Builders will be largely gone, the Boomers retiring, and our institutions — parishes and schools — will be emptying at an incredible rate. Sacramental practice will plummet at a rate that will make the post-Vatican II era look good, and the Church’s financial support will vanish like Bernie Madoff’s investment portfolio. So let’s be clear: In the twenty-first century, cultural Catholicism is dead as a retention strategy, because God has no grandchildren. In the twenty-first century, we have to foster intentional Catholicism rather than cultural Catholicism." [Weddell, Sherry (2012-07-05). Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus (p. 39). Our Sunday Visitor. Kindle Edition.] 

In the first chapter of her book, tagged "God has no Grandchildren", she quotes all the most reputable statistical information and seems to imply that cultural Catholicism once worked as a retention strategy... I don't know how old Sherry is, but my life experience tells me a very different story. American Catholicism has always been marked by powerful "shots-in-the-arm" through immigration and no small number of conversions from Protestantism or from the "nones" category at the time of marriage. People have always "fallen away" from the Church and in big numbers; I know how this has worked in an older generation of Catholics, all long dead, in my mother's family. American Catholicism has always been more of a "free market enterprise" than was Catholicism in the "Old Country". 

Culturally Catholic immigrants have never done well in the U.S. especially when isolated in non-Catholic areas, but even when dispersed among other good and active Catholics in parishes of different ethnic heritages. Italians, for instance, were never many in my part of the world and invariably when I was growing up an Italian family name could denote most anything but Catholic practice. The great challenge today among immigrants to the U.S. from Latin America is to offer them a cultural context within which to insert themselves. I think Sherry is sorely mistaken in contrasting cultural and intentional. There's nothing more intentional than a welcoming cultural context. Defection among Catholics stems from a sense of alienation within the community. They wander off for lack of intentional social support. My personal relationship with Christ, nourished by prayer and Divine Worship (liturgy) cannot be without an intentional/cultural context. The visible Church is the sine qua non for a relationship with Christ, the Bridegroom. My intention is not without its cultural context.

Perhaps the crisis of marriage and family today can be of help in understanding the gist of my argument. People who marry for love are no more likely to remain faithful a whole life long. Not only do the couple have to choose each other again and again, day by day, year by year, in the course of their marriage, but they really need a supportive social context to carry them through those days when personal intent or resolve seems to flag. 

Sherry wants us all to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; she wants us, like good evangelicals or pentecostals, to be able to mark that conversion experience. I think she may be seeking a greater heroism than the one of the martyrs, even greater than that of a true giant of the early Church, St. Ignatius of Antioch, would have claimed for himself in seeking the support of the Christian community of Rome on his path to martyrdom:

“I have prayed to the Lord to see your godly faces and I have persevered in prayer until I have been granted this — for I hope to greet you, as a prisoner in Christ Jesus, if only I am found worthy to reach the end of my journey. Things have begun well and all now depends on my receiving the grace to reach my goal and receive my inheritance unhindered. But I fear your love for me and I fear the harm it can do me: it is so easy for you to do what you want and so hard for me to reach God if you do not spare me your help.

  You habitually do what pleases God: do what pleases him now and not what pleases men. I shall never have a better opportunity of reaching God, and you will never have the opportunity of performing a better act than now, by keeping silence. If you remain silent, I shall become the word of God; but if your love of my physical life makes you speak, I shall be nothing but a meaningless cry.

  Grant me nothing more than this: that I should be poured out to God, while an altar is still ready for me. Form yourselves into a chorus of love and sing praise to the Father in Christ Jesus for permitting this bishop of Syria to be summoned from the place of the sun’s rising to the sunset lands. Just as the sun sets only to rise again, how good it is to set to this world, to set and then to rise in God.”

I want to read the rest of Sherry's book, but chapter one seems lacking in balance. Our cultural context is ineluctable; it is the fertile soil needed for yielding thirty, sixty or a hundred fold.

Giving Widowed Mothers Back Their Sons

In Year C on the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time both the 1st Reading from the first Book of Kings and the Gospel passage from Luke chapter 7 give accounts of God restoring dead sons alive to their widowed mothers. While such are not events one can hide under a bushel basket, the overall impact of this great wonder must always take a back seat to what were first and foremost in both instances demonstrations of God's boundless compassion toward these two women very much alone in their sorrow. Giving back the breath of life to their sons was intended firstly to free these women of their anguish. There is no evident further agenda behind God's choice to restore life; here we experience only immediate and boundless love at work.

In neither case would it seem that the women tempted fate by demanding the miracle of life restored to their dead sons; in both cases we see their tears and their pain before God. God's superabundant compassion is at work here. I think it more than fair to say that is the way things work in God's world. I think the only question we as baptized believers need ask ourselves this Sunday is whether our world is God's world. We need but ask, examine our consciences to see if we are living our days in the company of the Lord and Giver of Life. What else could possibly matter?

In German there is an expression "Volkskirche", which describes a popular religiosity centered on the village church or neighborhood parish; it connotes for us Catholics a straightforward practice of the sacraments: Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days, frequent Confession as a preparation for the devout and worthy reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord in Holy Communion, prayer at home and virtuous living consonant with our state in life. Lots of people dismiss the possibility of ever seeing a general revival of "Volkskirche", of what was a positive and supportive environment in which people could happily believe and be Catholic. I'm sorry, but I cannot accept that thesis. They describe a mustard seed type of witness for us without the rapid growth into a big bush or tree offering shelter to every sort of little bird. How can that be? Is not life in the catacombs but a passing trial, a step on the path to a fuller witness to the Gospel?  What else or what more or what better could we strive for in this Year of Faith? Are we not meant to be the city on the mountain top?

I think that "Volkskirche" expresses the ambience within the life of the Church which best reflects the Scriptural world in which the widows could shed their tears in their loneliness before God. How Christ moves to comfort and console is His sovereign choice, we must only not leave the flock untended.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

More to it than that, Liturgy

Not all that long ago, I discovered a great blog (called SYMPOSIUM), writing principally about the Eastern Tradition of our Church (the author hails from England, which really isn't "east" enough). He's published now on RISU and the article is captivating from my point of view. It is entitled: "THE LANGUAGE OF THE LITURGY: SPEAKING GOD’S KINGDOM". The author: Father James Siemens. The name is not typically Ukrainian and, if my sources serve me well, he would proudly profess himself to be the fruit of the evangelization efforts of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church worldwide, which he is eager to promote.

Let me lift just one quote from the article, which speaks about the Ukrainian language for liturgy and for culture:

"Indeed, as its lineage can be traced directly to Saints Wolodymyr and Olha, it is not just appropriate that it should be a language of worship, but should be considered a real gift. Yet, as Byzantine worship in the Kyivan tradition has spread across the globe, its continued use in places where the dominant language is not Ukrainian also means that, if the Ukrainian Church is to serve the people of God as an ‘Eastern lung’, she will need to do so in something other than – or at least in addition to – Ukrainian."

Other than in the case of Sts. Cyrill and Methodius, we don't usually think of the Byzantine tradition as missionary, as evangelizing beyond its borders. Father makes a good case for why we might rightly dump that stereotype and sort of breezes past the issue of inculturation, limiting his discussion to language as comprehensibility. I leave the matter of how the two "lungs" should complement each other on mission for you to judge. Our track record (Latins and Greeks) over the centuries for working harmoniously side by side on the same territory doesn't exactly read like a romance story. Sts. Cyrill and Methodius, with their disciples, were not the only ones who didn't have it particularly easy.

Personally, Father Siemens perplexes me as much as do folk within our "Latin" Tradition, for it seems to me they are thinking rather in terms of linguistic comprehension as the principal if not only vehicle in Divine Worship for carrying us to God. While people in the past have yearned and still today yearn for vernacular, our great liturgy, Byzantine or Roman, is not a book which we proclaim/read or chant from end to end; it is not so one dimensional or linear. Great worship is "layered": sometimes we are singing, while the celebrant is praying sottovoce; look again at the ancient Roman Rite as celebrated; understand the role of silence; remember that people were nourished by that liturgy for centuries.

When it comes to beauty, the little bit of Byzantine Liturgy which I have experienced in English pales in comparison to Old Slavonic or Ukrainian. No doubt there are some beautiful renditions of the Lord Have Mercy or the Holy Holy or the Lamb of God out there, but how can they compare with some of the Kyries, the Sanctus' or the Agnus Deis which we have in our Gregorian chant treasury, if not amongst the wealth of polyphony at our disposal?

In St. Augustine's day the catechumens were ushered out at the end of the Liturgy of the Word; they could not stay for the celebration of the great mysteries, the Eucharist. When after baptism they finally could, all needed to be explained to them, as they had never experience it before. What drew them to baptism was not the liturgy itself but, perhaps above all, the witness of Christian lives. Granted, that exclusion holds no more and there are many famous examples of unbelievers converted by encountering the sublime of worship, either simple or festive.

The crisis of faith and culture, the estrangement from the life of the Church today, is something which in the West people tend to lay at the door of liturgical abuse and banality. The recovery of the sacred would go a long, long way toward putting things in order. I cannot but believe that more is at stake however, in terms of family life, in terms of the witness to Christ which should be the hallmark of our daily living. Action speaks louder than words, or as one of the Popes of my lifetime stated: our age requires witnesses more than preceptors. A healthy and eager, fraternal competition for the sake of saving souls might be fun and might truly edify. My only point would be that I doubt seriously if it depends on linguistic comprehensibility.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Consubstantial, Yes!

JOSEPH CARDINAL RATZINGER (Pope Benedict XVI) 

The God of Jesus Christ 

Meditations on the Triune God 

Translated by Brian McNeil 

IGNATIUS PRESS     SAN FRANCISCO (Kindle Edition)

It's a good thing my annual vacation time is limited and I don't really have to spend much time reining in my propensity to impulse buying. The other day I saw a blurb from Ignatius Press suggesting this book would be good reading for Pentecost... and so I bought and read it. Not a mistake (as I have never found a book or article by our beloved Pope Emeritus to be a waste of time) but rather another find with countless insights to be gained of which I want only to share one from his discussion of the article of the Creed "consubstantial with the Father".

The quote is long, but more readable than my ramblings:

"But why did Arius’ answer seem so very obvious to the people of his age? Why did he succeed in winning over the public opinion of the entire educated world in so short a time? His success was due to the same reason that leads public opinion today to write off the Council of Nicaea: Arius wanted to preserve the purity of the concept of God. He did not want to ascribe to God anything as naive as an incarnation. He was convinced that in the final analysis, the concept of God and God himself must be completely excluded from human history. He was convinced that, ultimately, the world itself must regulate its own affairs; that it cannot gain access to God; and that of course God himself is so great that he cannot touch the world. The Fathers regarded this as atheism, and their judgment was correct, since a God to whom man has no access whatsoever, a God who in reality cannot play any role in the world, is no God. But have we not long since quietly returned to this kind of atheism? Do we, too, not find it intolerable to make God descend into human existence? Do we, too, not find it impossible that man could have a genuine relationship with God in the world? Is this not the reason why we have retreated with such passion to “the man Jesus”? But does this not mean that we have ended up in a world view of despair? For if only we ourselves have power over the world, since God has no such power, what else remains but despair (even if it is screened by big words)?" (Highlight Loc. 920-30)

These days here at home and in conversation with good folk have brought lots of questions and issues to the surface concerning the needs of our day and time. Yesterday I enjoyed being interviewed by the local Catholic Radio, still struggling for access to the airwaves here in South Dakota (anti-Catholic bias?). The interview was to a great extent biographical and a central theme was that of asking what was different about the faith environment which nurtured me, who if anyone inspired me or played a key role in my life, who helped bring out my vocation to priesthood, etc. Reasonable questions, yes, which must always stand against the backdrop of whatever it is that is going on in home, parish and Church today, no? The other usual query, which also came up during the interview, posits some sort of vocational struggle or wrestling with God before surrendering to His call.

As always, I guess, I must say that I disappoint my questioners by stating that my parents at home, both of them in their own unique way and together complementing each other, communicated a sense of the presence of God, which has stood me and all my siblings in good stead over the years. Catholic school supported that and offered additional content. For me there was no struggle, no wrestling with the will of God for me; believing folk around me shared with Mom and Dad what they discerned as the seeds of a vocation in a little boy and what I perceived at first in a childish way grew apace with my own maturation process over the course of time, marked by a boy's prayers, the balance of a minor seminary experience, university and major seminary, never stopping with ordination, but continuing in the school of life right up until today. Never forget that it is the Church that concretizes the call to Holy Orders, which comes from God! 

Where did Benedict and "consubstantial" go, you ask? Well, even though most of what is written in this book was thought out and set to paper decades ago, it reflects on a practical atheism abroad in our world which in my childhood and youth I was somehow spared. Certainly, we can fault decades of poor pedagogy which kept children (some now grandparents) from learning their catechism, but then the general and enveloping climate had changed as well, undermining what was really a Catholic culture, a nurturing environment. 

I think that Benedict is right in saying that the atheism of our day has crept into the Church just like the Arianism which the Fathers of the Council of Nicaea had to struggle against. The sense of the Year of Faith, which he proclaimed, is all too evident to me.

Other than recommending this book, may I suggest one small exercise and namely taking time to reflect that when we proclaim "Jesus is Lord" we are acknowledging the Son of the Eternal Father as God. Ponder the words of the Creed and let them change your outlook, your approach to every day. Reclaim or seek for the very first time that natural (for us the baptized) sense of the power and presence of God in Jesus Christ in our daily lives.

PROERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

It Doesn't Get Much Better

A School of Prayer

Pope Benedict XVI

Sceptre Publishers, Inc. 2012 (Kindle Edition)

“Constant and unanimous prayer is a precious tool to overcome any trial that may arise on life’s journey, because it is being deeply united to God that allows us also to be united to others.” (Highlight Loc. 2253-54)

No doubt there are those who would question as to whether I am all that in touch with the world around me, but for all my sustainers, who respect my judgment, I must tell you I couldn't be more enthusiastic about a book. Some may have enjoyed singly these Wednesday General Audience talks from our Pope Emeritus, but gathered under one cover they take on new life and never fail to impress as you allow yourself to be surprised, touched and convinced by the leitmotifs woven in.

This volume is indeed for everyone and can educate the smartest among us while edifying and responding to the needs of some of the simplest and most honest among us believers. It really helps understand what prayer of petition is all about and how we ask of God and experience an answer to our prayers.

"Before reflecting on this beautiful prayer, let us take note of an important basic attitude: when the first Christian community is confronted by dangers, difficulties, and threats, it does not attempt to work out how to react, find strategies, defend itself, or decide what measures to adopt; rather, when it is put to the test, the community starts to pray and makes contact with God." (Highlight Loc. 2001-4)

The Holy Father couldn't be clearer on the importance of unity and perseverance in prayer. He never judges, but it is all too clear that we as a Church would do better if we were of one mind and heart and constant in our prayer.

"Dear brothers and sisters, Peter’s liberation as recounted by Luke tells us that the Church (i.e., each of us) goes through the night of trial, but it is unceasing vigilance in prayer that sustains us. I too, from the first moment of my election as the successor of St. Peter, have always felt supported by your prayers, by the prayers of the Church, especially in moments of great difficulty. My heartfelt thanks! With constant and faithful prayer, the Lord releases us from our chains; he guides us through every night of imprisonment that can gnaw at our hearts. He gives us the peace of heart to face the difficulties of life, persecution, opposition, and even rejection. Peter’s experience shows us the power of prayer." (Highlight Loc. 2247-52)

People's enthusiasm for Pope Francis and the big crowds present in St. Peter's Square are truly a feast for the eyes and a joy to the heart. Beyond the hurrahs and the hosannahs, all of us worldwide in unanimity owe him the prayerful support which the Church has always given and without reserve to St. Peter and his Successors. 

Start with his monthly intentions in the Apostleship of Prayer and go on from there in union with the whole Church. Peter slept easy in chains, confident in God's power to save and in the prayer of the Church.

In Him we live and move and have our being:

“Actiones nostras, quæsumus, Domine, aspirando præveni et adiuvando prosequere, ut cuncta nostra oratio et operatio a te semper incipiat, et per te coepta finiatur”—that is, “Inspire our actions, Lord, and accompany them with your help, so that our every word and action may always begin and end in you.” Every step in our life, every action—of the Church too—must be taken before God, in the light of his word." 

(Highlight Loc. 2111-15)